Paul’s Confidence in the Gospel of Yahweh
Galatians 2:3-5 LSB But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. (4) But this was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. (5) But we did not yield in subjection to them for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
After 14 years of preaching his gospel, Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with James, Peter, and John, the leading figures of the Jerusalem Council, who guided the Jewish converts to the Way. Paul had decided on this course of action because false Jewish teachers proclaiming circumcision as the Way to holiness had infiltrated his flock (V4 above). Paul had not yielded to this spiritual treachery “so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you” (V5).
Paul also wanted to ensure this was the case with the Jerusalem Council.
Acts 15 tells the story of Paul and Barnabas at the Jerusalem Council. There was significant debate within the Council as many of the Pharisees were still insisting on circumcision. Then Peter calmed the storm with this:
Acts 15:7-11 LSB And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. (8) “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; (9) and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. (10) “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? (11) “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
The outcome was a declaration from James followed by a letter to all Gentile believers:
Acts 15:19-21 LSB “Therefore I judge that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, (20) but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from sexual immorality and from what is strangled and from blood. (21) “For from ancient generations, Moses has those who preach him in every city, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
I remind you that this occurred some 20 years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It appears from V21 that there was a separation between the Jewish and Gentile converts that has never really been repaired. The declaration from James above is essential for what it DID NOT say:
- New Gentile believers should circumcised,
- New Gentile believers should observe the Sabbath.
The above applies to the Seventh-day Adventist institutional church, which insists its members attend worship services every Saturday and observe Sabbath activity restrictions. The Jerusalem Council determined that these two legalistic Jewish observances were NOT salvation issues but merely religious observance issues. If these issues DO become salvation issues within a religious institution, then the institution has crossed the line and is preaching a gospel other than that delivered by the Apostles.
Paul’s challenge to the Jerusalem Council is how his confidence in his gospel has benefited all Gentile believers from that day forward.
Paul even called out Peter when he changed his demeanour when addressing Gentiles and Jews. Thus was the confidence of Paul in his gospel:
Galatians 2:11-14 LSB But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. (12) For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, fearing the party of the circumcision. (13) And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. (14) But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before everyone, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Conclusion
Paul declares that this confidence in his gospel is due to his new status as an adopted son of Yahweh brought into the family of Yahweh through faith in the shedding of the blood of Yeshua, the Christ, as a co-crucified man imputing the faith of Christ to himself, as he wrote in Ephesians:
Ephesians 1:3-5 LSB Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (4) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, (5) by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Paul makes a stunning declaration to finish the chapter.
Galatians 2:19-21 KJV For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (21) I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Let the above passage sink in……
Let this become our existential reality…..
Meditate on this…….
Attribute this passage to yourself if you hold ANY institutional bias within your soul.
We are not to hold any affiliations as sacred other than that of an adopted and sanctified Son of God.
We are Sons of the Creator of the universe by the grace of Yahweh through Yeshua, the Messiah and not through any religious ritualistic observance. We have the faith of the Son of Yahweh imputed to us by GRACE through our faith in our saviour.
We have not earned Yahweh’s favour and certainly do not deserve it.
Praise Yeshua!
Praise Yahweh!
AMEN.
Blessings to all my readers.
Geoff
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